I’ve got myself a setup that is working very well for me now for Zwift running, curious what others are using. I found that while I initially used my garmin 235 forerunner on the treadmill, the inaccuracy of the pace/speed was driving me crazy.
Ultimately, I ended up using the following:
Apple TV 4th generation: To run Zwift (purchased used on eBay for about $50).
Wahoo Tickr Run (currently on sale on the Wahoo site for $59): This captures both heart rate and stride and outputs both to the Apple TV for display on Zwift.
RunSocial Treadtracker ($125): This was the more expensive piece, but it works great and is really in place of getting a “smart” treadmill." The hardware goes underneath any treadmill, and connects via Bluetooth (as a foot pod) to the Apple TV/Zwift. Now whatever speed/pace I punch into the treadmill is displayed quickly and accurately on Zwift.
I recognize that treadmills are not calibrated well and that the speed that I am inputting into the treadmill may not be accurate, but I do appreciate recording the exact speed that I’m putting in on Zwift.
All of this has worked pretty much without a hitch, and means that I’ve got the equivalent of a “smart treadmill” without changing out the existing treadmill that I have.
I use an HP Elite laptop connected to a 19" monitor that I mounted in front of my treadmill (I have a mouse to control it and the ZML for additional in-game functions)
Wahoo Tickr Run for HR and a Stryd for speed, cadence and much more connected to the laptop via Ant+ (I use a little pouch on my shoe to move the Stryd between them)
The treadmill is a Proform Pro 2000 that I got on-sale for about $900
I also run my Garmin 920xt at the same time so when I upload to Strava I get the Fitness and Freshness
I use a milestone foot pod, Coospo HRM and Apple TV 4k Ultra connected to a 47" Ultra HD TV at home. In hotel gyms as I travel a lot I use the same with my iPhone.
My footpod is calibrated accurately against a calibrated park run distance and GPS track so I never bother matching it to the treadmill. It does highlight the differences in treadmill accuracy though!! My Nordick Track Smart Treadmill at home is new and that under reads by about 10% compared to the foot pod. I was on a hotel one recently that over read by 5kmh!!
I just run the Zwift distance now and that works well enough for my training and is consistent against outdoor performance.
Just so you know the Milestone is really only accurate at the speed in which it is calibrated at. There are a lot of posts about it in the Facebook Runners group.
Yep, I know. It should actually be calibrated outside of Zwift not using the celibate tool on the Zwift run page.
Mine is accurate enough for my purposes and calibrating it against an uncalibrated treadmill is just a hiding to nowhere. It records the SPM against my VivoSmart HR+ trace on Zwift with a couple per minute was is evidence enough for me that its accurate enough. If I take the same profiles outdoors (I can create a TCX of my life runs and import them into my treadmill over the net) my times are close enough.
I think you can get too obsessed with trying to get perfect accuracy on what is just anther training aid?
Agreed on being to obsessed over accuracy, I shake my head at some of the post here (for bike and running) and as lot of the ones in the Facebook Zwift Runners group.
I got the Stryd because it is duel band and needs no calibration. I like to look at the additional stats I get from it, but don’t obsess or stress about them.